Compared to traditional sidescan sonar, synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) or Interferometric synthetic aperture sonar (InSAS) systems can provide much higher resolution images across the whole swath. ...Due to the high resolution and fast mapping rate at a given speed, SAS/InSAS technology is gaining increasing interest within the field of underwater engineering. Navigation, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), sonar technolog and electronics have achieved great progress in recent years. Thanks to these developments, the SAS/InSAS has also been pushed into a new stage. Firstly, the lightweight and compact SAS can be mounted on ever smaller, highly flexible platforms. Secondly, current algorithms are computationally more efficient. Thirdly, the SAS/InSAS images are further improved based on various methods. Last but not least, SAS/InSAS technology is preferred by underwater mapping users due to its high resolution. The current Special Issue is focused on research ideas, articles and experimental studies related to “Recent Advances in Synthetic Aperture Sonar Technology” for development, operating mode, algorithms and applications the various aspects of SAS/InSAS in applications.
The aim is to present updated estimates of the size of Australia's sexual minority adult population (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and other sexual minority identities). No estimate of this population is ...currently available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and very little is available from other sources. We obtained data on sexual minority identities from three data collections of two national surveys of recent years. Combining averaged prevalence rates from these surveys with official Estimated Resident Population data, we produce estimates of Australia's sexual minority population for recent years.
According to percentages averaged across the three survey datasets, 3.6% of males and 3.4% of females described themselves with a minority sexual identity. When applied to Estimated Resident Populations, this gives a sexual minority population at ages 18 + in Australia of 599,500 in 2011 and 651,800 in 2016. Population estimates were also produced by sex and broad age group, revealing larger numbers and higher sexual minority percentages in the younger age groups, and smaller numbers and percentages in the oldest age group. Separate population estimates were also prepared for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other sexual minority identities.
Seafloor sediment acoustic returns are comprised of scattering from both the sediment-water interface and the sediment volume. For low frequencies, volume scattering is often the dominant mechanism; ...however, direct measurements of this component have rarely been made, owing to the large beamwidths typically associated with low-frequency echosounder systems. When beamwidths are large, the sediment interface and volume returns arrive at the same time, causing estimates of volume scattering to become biased by the interface scattering. Endfire synthetic aperture sonar (EF-SAS) can achieve narrower beamwidths by coherently combining multiple acoustic returns as a vertically oriented transmitter and/or receiver is moved toward the seafloor. This article will present a proof of concept for EF-SAS, which will include an analysis of EF-SAS processing methods and an experimental verification of EF-SAS beamwidth improvements. Results from a motion-controlled EF-SAS experiment indicate that EF-SAS gains can be accurately predicted and that these gains are significant enough to remove the interface scattering bias.
Attitudes to sexual minorities have undergone a transformation in many Western countries in recent decades. With much greater public acceptance, and an increase in policies and legislation to support ...equality and outlaw discrimination, the need for population statistics on sexual minority populations has grown. However, such statistics remain rare: Only a few sets of population estimates have been produced in a small number of countries, and there are no population projections of which we are aware. The aims of this paper are to introduce a model for producing projections of a national population by sexual identity, suggest ways in which data and conceptual limitations can be handled, and present illustrative population projections for Australia. An adapted multistate cohort-component is described, along with various data sources and approaches for preparing plausible projection assumptions. Two illustrative scenarios for the future of Australia's sexual minority population over the 2016-2041 period are presented. According to the selected scenarios, Australia's sexual minority population is projected to increase rapidly over the coming decades, rising from 0.65 million in 2016 to between 1.25 and 1.57 million by 2041. This growth is generated by sexual minority cohort flow--the gradual replacement of cohorts with lower proportions of sexual minority identification by those with the higher proportions--and identification change. The overall share of the population identifying with a sexual minority identity is likely to increase. Although the projections remain illustrative and approximate, the likely coming growth of the sexual minority population signals multiple social, health, and economic policy implications ahead.
Lesbians and gay men are exposed to unique minority stressors. We examined the health implications of one type of distal minority stressor (victimisation) and one type of proximal minority stressor ...(sexual identity concealment due to anticipated stigma) among lesbians and gay men. Gender‐specific health implications were assessed.
Data were collected via an online survey involving an Australian sample of 1,470 gay men and 1,264 lesbians. Survey questions assessed demographics, experiences of different forms of sexual identity‐related victimisation and sexual identity concealment in a variety of contexts. Health outcomes included self‐reported general health, illicit drug use, frequency of alcohol consumption, smoking status, and weight status.
Gay men reported higher rates of victimisation and identity concealment than lesbians. Controlling for demographic differences, experiences of victimisation were associated with poorer self‐rated health, illicit drug use, and smoking among both gay men and lesbians. In contrast, identity concealment was linked with poorer health outcomes among lesbians only.
Our findings offer new insights into the potential antecedents of the health inequalities that have previously been reported for these populations.
Kin discrimination, broadly defined as differential treatment of conspecifics according to their relatedness, could help biological systems direct cooperative behavior toward their relatives. Here we ...investigated the ability of the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis to discriminate kin from nonkin in the context of swarming, a cooperative multicellular behavior. We tested a collection of sympatric conspecifics from soil in pairwise combinations and found that despite their history of coexistence, the vast majority formed distinct boundaries when the swarms met. Some swarms did merge, and most interestingly, this behavior was only seen in the most highly related strain pairs. Overall the swarm interaction phenotype strongly correlated with phylogenetic relatedness, indicative of kin discrimination. Using a subset of strains, we examined cocolonization patterns on plant roots. Pairs of kin strains were able to cocolonize roots and formed a mixed-strain biofilm. In contrast, inoculating roots with pairs of nonkin strains resulted in biofilms consisting primarily of one strain, suggestive of an antagonistic interaction among nonkin strains. This study firmly establishes kin discrimination in a bacterial multicellular setting and suggests its potential effect on ecological interactions.
Recent research has suggested that interpersonal communication may be an important source of stereotype maintenance. When communicated through a chain of people, stereotype-relevant information tends ...to become more stereotypical, thus confirming the stereotypes held by recipients of communication. However, the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon have yet to be fully determined. This article examines how the socially shared nature of stereotypes interacts with communication processes to maintain stereotypes in communication chains. In 3 experiments, participants communicated a stereotype-relevant story through 4-person chains using the method of serial reproduction. Manipulations included the extent to which communicators believed their audience and other community members shared and endorsed their stereotypes, and also the extent to which they actually shared the stereotypes. The shared nature of stereotypes was found to be a strong contributor to rendering the story more stereotypical in communication. This is discussed in relation to the maintenance of stereotypes through communication.
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